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10/28/2015

The video for Adele’s new single “Hello,” in which she tearfully looks back on a failed relationship with a guy played by The Wire’s
Tristan Wilds, opens with the singer talking on a flip phone. “When I
heard the song I saw a story right away,” director Xavier Dolan told The Los Angeles Times
in a new interview. “Just this idea of taking the phone and calling
your past.” But does that phone have to be a flip phone? Can the past
only communicate with mid-2000s era technology? (Makes sense.) This is
what Dolan has to say about that, and about everyone’s preoccupation
with Adele’s choice of cell phone:

It drives me crazy. I could see the GIFs on Twitter. I’m
like, ‘Guys, get over it. It doesn’t matter.’ But the real explanation
is that I never like filming modern phones or cars. They’re so implanted
in our lives that when you see them in movies you’re reminded you’re in
reality. If you see an iPhone or a Toyota in a movie, they’re
anti-narrative, they take you out of the story. If I put an iPhone or a
modern car in a movie it feels like I’m making a commercial.

Ok, there you have it. Xavier Dolan would love it if you could all just stop talking about Adele’s flip phone now please!